One section of Geek fandom was happy to hear that Venom was getting an R-rating. Another group cursed and hoped that Venom would bomb at the box office and with critics, so that Marvel can't have its pie and eat it again like they did with Andrew Garfield's Spider-Man... so two weeks in, guess who won?
Let's dig in...
Well, the critics were not kind, they gave Venom low scores and it averaged 31% on Rotten Tomatoes, which is a rotten rating.
Then Sony opened with a PG 13 rating instead of an R-rating, which got some fans frothing at their mouths, but two weeks since its opening, Venom is doing stellar at the box office and with audiences.
Venom is still number 1 after two weeks at the US box office and its looking to go over that $200m mark. It has a B cinema score, which is a rating given by audiences.
We have one of those whereby the critics and the public don't see eye to eye so where do I stand?
Man, Venom isn't breaking the mould and it isn't the best thing since sliced bread but it's no Fantastic Four reboot and the disaster that some critics are making it out to be.
It's more of a buddy-cop movie in line with Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, Lethal Weapon and all those 80s cop movies, styled in a comic book movie.
Venom plays bad cop and Eddie Brock, in the personae of Tom Hardy, plays goodish cop. It's when these two interact, whether it be in Eddie's head or when Venom pops up like a snakey goey head, that the film brings all the humour, action and entertainment value front and centre.
Tom Hardy does some great physical comedy in this. He is the perfect man to play against Riz Ahmed's villain, who seems to be a send-off of Elon Musk; visionary bad guy in a suit.
Yes, the CG battle between Venom and Riot is not the best on earth but I believe, come the sequel, they would have perfected it for the battle with Carnage.
Yes there will be a sequel and the Carnage plug is one of the worst kept movie secrets of 2018. It may have its faults but Venom is a decent popcorn flick that Michael Bay used to make during his Bad Boy 1 and The Rock days - it's what he turned Transformer into.
There's plenty of humour, some minor plot holes, some action, some iffy CGI in bits but it is all kept together by Tom Hardy's zany performance.
What it felt like: Lethal Weapon meets Deadpool-light in San Francisco.
Rating
***
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* rubbish ** ja nee *** ya zama ****aight we cooking with gas ***** classic